Intruder Killed, Shooter Suffers Heart Attack

Police Say Incident Began As Attempted Burglary

A Hartford man suffered a heart attack Thursday night after he fatally shot a man at his South Green apartment.

Police said they believe the latter had been attempting to burglarize an apartment on Seymour Street when the occupant shot him with a handgun.

The occupant of the apartment, J. Gregory Robertson, 64, was being treated Friday at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center for a heart attack sustained while police were questioning him.

Police identified the dead man as Ralph Colon, 56, of 201 Saybrook St., Hartford. He was shot in the abdomen and died Friday morning at Hartford Hospital, police spokeswoman Nancy Mulroy said.

Mulroy said officers responded at about 8:40 p.m. to a report of a person being shot at 136 Seymour St.

When they arrived, the officers found Colon on the exterior deck of Apt. 303.

They forced their way into the apartment, where Robertson appeared to be in distress, Mulroy said. He dropped the gun, Mulroy said, and was taken into custody. Later, while being questioned, he suffered the heart attack.

Some details of the shooting remained unclear late Friday, including where Robertson was questioned and who owned the handgun.

A former Hartford Courant reporter, Robertson was taken to St. Francis, where he was placed under police guard.

No charges have been filed in the incident, Mulroy said.

Thursday's incident marked the second time in two months that a city resident has killed an alleged intruder.

In June, Jesus Hernandez, a Putnam Heights resident who was renovating a three-family home on Park Terrace, was threatened by a pair of intruders when he entered the house and fatally stabbed one of them in the chest. That incident was classified as a homicide.